Hackers haven’t given up yet; stay away from pirated and duplicate files

Siliconreview Team
2017-05-26

Likely the ransomware hackers are going to stay for few more days among all of us for the obvious reason that they are still one step ahead of all of us, be it in technology or crime.

After taking the world by storm, the miscreants’ new target to hack systems and encrypt it is by spreading fake movie subtitles. Hackers can now acquire full control of the desktop system by disposing the malware through fake movie subtitles that shall notify the hackers affecting users of video players like Popcorn Time and VLC system.

In recent news, Checkpoint has stated that it found the malware in the form of subtitle files that can allow hackers the command to encrypt code into subtitle files popular with mostly pirated movies. Users, who search for subtitles for movies or series, naively trust those files and falls prey to such attacks. Checkpoint states:

“Our research reveals a new possible attack vector, using a completely overlooked technique in which the cyberattack is delivered when movie subtitles are loaded by the user’s media player. These subtitles repositories are, in practice, treated as a trusted source by the user or media player; our research also reveals that those repositories can be manipulated and be made to award the attacker’s malicious subtitles a high score, which results in those specific subtitles being served to the user. This method requires little or no deliberate action on the part of the user, making it all the more dangerous.”

It’s time you choose your every move cautiously and probably absent yourself from malice operations, apps and files.